5 Things About Karen Gillan, the Scot Who Will Conquer Hollywood

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

Karen Gillan is about to have a very big year.

If you recognize her, it’s probably from her role as Amy Pond on Doctor Who. That’s put the Scottish actress on the radars of many a Whovian, but she has heretofore remained largely unknown in the United States by anyone who isn’t a fan of the Time Lord.

That will change beginning Friday, when Gillan makes her debut in her first big American movie, the haunted-mirror horror flick Oculus. Then, in an even more sizable Big Deal, she’ll play the pirate/mercenary Nebula in James Gunn’s massive Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy. For those who didn’t catch the buzz from Comic-Con, this is the role for which Gillan famously shaved her head.

Guardians (and Gillan’s cue-balled look) doesn’t hit theaters until August. Until then, we have Oculus, in which she makes a very unsettling dark turn as a young woman obsessed with figuring out and chronicling the haunted mirror that terrorized her family as a child. Her performance as a determined truth-seeker facing horrific trauma and, you know, malevolent supernatural forces is chillingly wonderful. Oculus is cower-in-your-seat scary, and will give Gillan a chance to be seen, and appreciated, by non-Whovians on this side of the pond.

Here’s a primer of things you should know about Gillan before she makes it big.

Name: Karen Gillan

Known For: Playing Amy Pond on Doctor Who, Kaylie Russell in Oculus, and, before long, Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Fact 1: She gets most frequently recognized as Amy Pond in New York City.

There’s a certain cool factor to being a Whovian in the states that doesn’t translate in Britain, where the BBC show is popular, if not fashionable. This is most apparent to Gillan when she visits New York with other Doctor Who cast members. “It’s a trendy thing over there or something, the hipsters like it,” Gillan says. “But it’s not like that in the UK, so we’re like, ‘Oh my god, we’re cool in America! That’s never happened before.'”

Fact 2: In addition to making her cool, being a Who character also helped her get her Oculus part.

Gillan was more surprised than anyone when an American director approached her about starring in a horror film, but a Skype discussion with Mike Flanagan revealed why the writer-director was interested in her. “I was just trying to impress him,” Gillan says. “[Then] he takes a drink out of his mug and it’s a Tardis. I was like, ‘Yes! This is going to be easier than I thought.’ It took me a minute and then I was like, ‘Hold on, we need to reference this because we can’t carry on like that didn’t happen.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, right!’ He forgot it was a Tardis mug because he uses it every day.”

Fact 3: Despite her recent history in sci-fi, she’s a huge horror fan—especially the Scream franchise.

“I grew up a huge fan of horror films,” Gillan says. “I liked the really cheesy teen slasher ones.” That, of course, includes the ultimate teen horror flick, Scream. “When Relativity came on board for Oculus, one of their guys Richard Potter actually oversaw the first two Scream films, which are the best ones, so I’ve been talking his ear off,” she adds. “He’s probably so sick of me.”

Fact 4: She thinks people will be surprised by Guardians of the Galaxy.

Heading into the project, Gillan was nervous about working on something so big. “Then I got there and I was just like, ‘Oh so this is just a bigger spaceship than what I’ve worked on on Doctor Who.'” She also worried that working on a massive summer tentpole flick would mean there wouldn’t be a lot of close creative collaboration with director James Gunn. Not so. She found Gunn to be a vibrant presence on set. Gillan does, however, think the tone the Super director has set will surprise audiences. “It’s definitely a new direction for Marvel, that’s the first thing I noticed when I read the script and it certainly has James Gunn’s mark all over it,” she says. “His voice is definitely shining through. It’s really humorous, it’s not taking itself too seriously. It’s a bit cocky and ballsy.”

Fact 5: She’s still a little surprised when she sees people dressed as one of her characters. (Note: These shockers will likely intensify once everyone knows her a Nebula.)

For years, cosplayers have been outfitting themselves like Amy Pond. Running into those folks is an experience she can only describe as “surreal.” It’s doubly weird when she goes to parties and doesn’t realize they’re based around the show she formerly starred in. “I went to Chris Hardwick’s birthday party in LA once and I didn’t realize until I got there that it was Doctor Who-themed. There was like a Tardis for a door and inside there were girls dressed as me. I was like, ‘This is it. This is the weirdest thing.'”